Dark Minds
by CreativeMultitasker
Summary: Debut of series. Co-written with andromeda123. An escaped criminal discovers the abandoned warehouse of Doctor Blowhole, and uses this new found discovery to his advantage. The penguins, along with some new recruits, think he's no problem, but they soon learn that appearances can be deceiving.
1. Prison Break

**WOW! Sorry this took so long! I was suffering from writer's block -_- and well... school's just started and things are kinda hectic if you know what I mean. Anyway, this is the premiere of my new series, which will be totally epic! Full of drama, mystery, romance, suspense and blah blah blah. By the way, this series will have nothing to do with my first two stories. Three new OCs will star in my saga, and I hope that you will all encourage me in this huge project of mine! I'm so excited! Anyway... ON WITH THE STORY! *applaud*  
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**Note: This series has nothing to do with my first two stories.  
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**Disclaimer: I do not own the Penguins of Madagascar, nor will I ever.  
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Chapter 1

Soft, muffled footsteps echoed through the dark hallway, bouncing faintly off the cold, metal walls of the lonely prison; the snores of its many prisoners that it held captive in bitter accompaniment.

The guard's arms swayed nonchalantly at his sides as he strode quietly down the hall. He lifted a speckled paw, and adjusted his night vision goggles; carefully reaching for the strap wrapped firmly ears and pulling it into a more comfortable position.

A number of metal clattering noises suddenly pierced through the silence, their sources revealed to be several of the convicts that were still awake, noisily rattling their 5-inch cell doors in a pathetic attempt to break out.

The jailer grunted disapprovingly at them through their little chamber windows, their glares of hatred and loath burning through his shielded eyes. He paused, disrespectfully spitting in one's direction and ordering them to keep quiet before continuing down the corridor.

Another slightly shorter guard waited for him at the end of the grey hallway, his black uniform camouflaging him in the darkness that the night provided. He saluted respectfully to his fellow, who did the same as a small smirk stretched at the sides of his whiskered snout. "What are you doing here, Victor? Its already past curfew." asked the seemingly younger jailer, gesturing his surprise by flinging his arms out to his sides.

The one named Victor clasped his paws behind his back, "Came to check on 'you know whom'. Officer's orders." he nodded his head in the direction of the large cell door that stood before him, " -now step aside."

He attempted to slip past the small figure that blocked his way, only to be roughly, but gently shoved back into his original place.

Victor grunted in distaste, "I said step aside kid. I'm here under Griffon's orders, unless you want me to tell him of the amateur that prevented me from executing them." he threatened, towering over the in-experienced guard, his nose scrunching as his lips curved into a frown.

The youth flinched, jerking his head down and staring at his feet worriedly. It was lucky that he was wearing a pair of goggles; otherwise Victor would have seen the glint of fear that sparked through his eyes in response to the blackmail.

"No sir," hastily spluttered the youngster, quickly saluting once more, "I am in no position to question an officer, or a guard of senior rank. My apologies." Briskly, he grasped the handle to the cell door and yanked it open, revealing yet another room. And in it was another jail cell, only this time barred, and placed in its centre.

The prisoner trapped inside remained quiet, as if trying to pass himself in the form of a sleeping child. He heard his captor wordlessly enter his cell, the clinking of keys and the groan of the twisting tumblers encased the lock vibrating off his worn out eardrums.

Victor, who kicked him roughly in the leg, interrupted his silent state; causing him to let out a soft grunt as he forced back a yelp of pain that had entered suddenly from his leg, and shot violently through his body. The guard spun around towards his shorter companion, "Close this door and leave us be." he commanded, pointing a finger at the amateur as if he had committed some sort of heinous crime. "I need to have a nice, long chat with this nut."

The youngster obeyed, grabbing the chamber door's knob and gently shutting it, but not before he allowed himself to give Victor once last glance, did he completely close it.

* * *

Victor ear's twitched silently towards the door behind him, his body rigid all the while as he stared downwards towards the lowly maniac, that sat curled up in a fetal position at his feet.

"What do you want Victor?" he grunted irritably, "I'm busy."

A mocking chuckle escaped the guard's slightly parted lips, "Oh Tony…" he muttered low under his breath as he shook his head, the sarcasm ringing clearly from his voice. He turned, "You know just as well as I do that you're not."

Tony groaned, "Get to the point. I don't have all night. What do you want?" his high-tech shackles glowed dimly in the dark, a soft humming emanating from them. He looked up tiredly but scathingly to face the prison officer, his tail swinging idly behind him.

Victor scowled, a low growl vibrating deep in his well-built chest, "You know exactly what I want and am referring to, psycho." he whispered harshly, thrusting out a strong paw and forcefully slamming the convict into the wall of his cell. Tony's skull clanked loudly against the metal bars behind him as he grinned malevolently, unfazed by the pain that ebbed away at the back of his head.

"You promise yes?" asked the prisoner, raising a brow as he kept his toothy smile visible.

Victor let out a breathy sigh, "Yes." he answered, pushing the boiling anger back down to the pit of his stomach as he resisted the urge to reach up and pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "I will take five years off your life sentence and in return you have to give me what _I_ want…"

It was now Tony's turn to sigh.

"Give you intel regarding your wife," he paused as he let out a suppressed laugh, "That I captured." his smile widened, the flinching action the guard made caught in the corner of his eye; he had struck a nerve.

Victor squeezed his eyes tightly, the burning sensation of grief stricken tears stinging his tear ducts as he dug his claws into the shoulders of the vicious convict pinned against the wall.

"Shut up," barked the night watchman, his teeth grinding loudly against each other, as he forced out these two words in hostile snaps of held-back-rage. "… Just give me what you have."

A look of amusement flashed upon Tony's stone like features, an obvious sign of him silently taunting the jailer. "You're a smart one Victor. Alright I'll cut to the chase." the prisoner was then released from the guard's grip, and allowed himself to fall back onto the cold metal of the cell beneath his feet.

Tony began, "After I captured your wife, I sent her to one my primary hideouts. The one that you 007 boys normally go to whenever I'm on the run." he stopped for a moment, looking up at Victor with a look of nonchalance expression and eerie calmness in his eyes. "Am I going to fast for you?"

Victor growled once more, "No. Keep. Going." He grunted coldly, each word spat out with so much hate it was incomprehensible. Not even to Tony; but he didn't care for it.

Tony continued, "She was my favourite prisoner, and mentioned your name quite often I might add."

The convict stared idly at the shaft of soft moonlight that seeped in through his tiny chamber window, "What was she called again?" he shifted his gaze toward the ceiling, resting the back of his head against the rusty bars that stood rigid behind him as he questioned himself.

"Oh… right." he jerked his head back up, "Samantha."

Victor's paws quickly balled up into clenched fists, his eyes trembling violently from the quickly growing sensation of burning tears, the hair behind his neck bristling in vexation towards the jailbird's sneers.

"She always said how you were gonna come rescue her… but of course, " Tony stared back up at the now infuriated jailer, chuckling lightly at the unbelievable amounts of anger that flowed out of him, traveling in unsettling vibes through his skin and out of the tips of his short fur. "You never came…"

Victor had heard enough.

With a loud cry, he once again clutched Tony by the collar of his orange prison uniform, lifting him into the air so that his eyes were level with his own.

"Thank you for the information." he hissed out, so much abhorrence pouring out of his trembling soul, and attempting to attack the detainee's with its mighty force.

Tony laughed yet again, "Oh your welcome. But really…" he chuckled, tilting his head to the side slightly. "I'm the one that should be thanking you."

The night watchman narrowed his eyes, squeezing them into tiny slits of suspicion, highlighted distinctively with hostility and authority. "What exactly do you mean by that?" he asked, cocking a brow. Victor still kept his grip on the prisoner, the paw latched around his throat loosening only slightly.

Tony smiled, which was quickly followed by a swift jerk of his leg, hitting Victor right in the shin and sending him crumpling down to the prison floor in pain. The spotted canine let out an agonized yell, his forepaws darting quickly to the lower proportion of his right leg and locking themselves instantaneously around it.

"What I mean is: 'thanks for helping me disable the circuitry in my cuffs and freeing me'." replied Tony calmly, before expertly hitting his bonds' pressure points, forcing them to disable and unlock with a loud 'click'. The high tech restraints fell to the floor, its loud clanking sound bouncing noisily off the walls of the prison cell as it collided hard with the cold ground. "It looks like I won't be needing that five-year take away from my sentence anymore." he mumbled low under his breath as he massaged the edge of his wrists.

The now ex-prisoner started steadily towards the door that lead to his freedom, sparing several seconds to glance behind him and idly comment, "By the way. I was lying about you're wife. She's dead." before crashing though the exit and darting down the dark hall.

Almost immediately after, a loud siren blared through the building, its lights illuminating the once dim hall with a neon red colour. Muffled by the alarm's loud clamor, were the cheers of the various convicts locked away in their cells, the noise blending in with the irritating alarm.

The young jailer from earlier poked his head around the doorframe of what used to be Tony's cell. Though his eyes were concealed from view, his snout was wrinkled both in confusion and fear. "What _happened_?!" he exclaimed loudly, his ears pressed flat against his skull as he flailed his arms wildly about.

Victor ignored him, briskly jumping to his feet and grabbing the hand held mic that hung at the side of the chamber door.

* * *

"_Agent four one three to all personal! A code two four one dash 'B' is in progress! The jailbird has flown the cage! I repeat! __**The jailbird has flown the cage!**__"_

The jailer's panicked voice rang clearly out of the intercoms built everywhere within the large cement building, which earned a rapid response from the various guards of the prison, their reflexes bringing their feet to life and pounding against the floor as they ran in hot pursuit.

From outside the jailhouse, the watchtowers sprung to life, the night watchmen inside each one swiftly flipping on their lamps to begin the hasty search.

A frenzy of jailers could be seen below, running amuck in the prison courtyard, as they attempted to quickly locate their missing convict through the darkness and hopefully barricade his way.

Among the delirium, a dark figure ran through a shaft of light that was beamed from one of the watchtowers, catching the eye of one of the guards that had stood watch. He quickly raised his wing, pressing its tip lightly against his earpiece and activating it.

"Tony's headed for the docks!" he shouted into his communication device, pointing towards the prison wall that blocked his view from the half bridge that stood behind it, about a mile and a half away from the prison grounds. Apparently, a speedboat was docked there.

In two swift motions, the random watchman spread his wings and took off into the black night sky, his beak pointed forward and his gaze secured rigidly on Tony's position. He then allowed his eyes to widen as he darted the dark pupils within back and forth; from the group of guards that was running towards Tony, to the convict himself, who had managed to steal a grappling gun, climb over the wall, get into the small electric vessel that floated silently beside the small port, and was currently in the process of igniting the engine.

The guard from before growled agitatedly one second later, his muscles tensing as he prepared for himself to land.

By the time the group of guards had reached the other side of the wall, Tony had already escaped. They were too late.

With a final glance, the jailer sighed loudly in defeat as his feet finally made contact with the ground, landing before the cluster of jailers that stood behind him, his wings still flapping lightly to soften the landing. He jerked them back into place, walking slowly forward as he watched the escapee travel further and further away from the coast.

Once again, he reached for his communication device.

"Agent two six seven to General Griffon." he forced down a lump in his throat, "We may have a developing situation on our hands, sir."

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**Don't worry. This will all make sense after the 3rd chapter. Now as for a question I've been receiving quite a lot lately: Yes, you may borrow my OCs, so long as I give you my permission and that you promise to try and keep them in character (OC details can be found on my profile!). Also, I think you may have noticed the change in title for this story (and the rushed ending)... sorry if I caused any confusion or annoyance! Anyway... REVIEW PLEASE! They really give me the motivation to write this story!  
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	2. An Exercise Gone Wrong

**Yes! I'm still alive and kicking! So sorry for the long hiatus, and everything but... school can really get up your ass. And so, now that my grades are back up, I'm back in the writing business! So without further ado, on with the story!**

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Chapter 2

Filthy, white, bowling pins speckled the penguin's habitat, shadows stalking the bright sunlight on their clumsily drawn faces. Their beady black eyes fixated on their avian adversaries standing across from them, locked and fastened.

"Private, "their leader began, pressing an encouraging flipper on the cadet's back. "Roughly thirteen of Dr. Blowhole's -"

"-Actually there are fourteen, Skipper."

"Right, Kowalski, that's what I said," quickly backlashed the flat-headed leader, a hint of annoyance flashing across his hardened features for a moment. "-fourteen of Dr. Blowhole's lobsters are blocking your path to the lair's self-destruct button."

A bored Rico stood opposite of Private, his flipper poised over a stage prop control panel; the neon red button in the center flickering dimly like a dying candle flame.

"Your task is to bypass and diffuse the lobster guards, then press the self-destruct button."

Private looked onward smugly, bringing his flippers to his hips in a self-assured manner.

"Meanwhile… Rico! If you would…"

Rico nodded, and chucked out a mobile control pad, at the command of Skipper's wink, from his gut. Rico grunted as he tossed the device over to more capable flippers. The intellectual, standing opposite, effortlessly caught the flying device, then, in several swift motions, pressed a number of blinking blue and green buttons, finishing off with the twist of a knob.

Suddenly, the flaccid bowling pins began to tremor, and a high-pitched squeal ripped through the air like a bullet.

Lasers sprung forth from their angry little eyes, wheels sprouted from their bases, and in an instant, they began madly spinning and whirling about the ice floe.

Private gasped, dodging a dizzyingly hot laser beam that had barely scathed the feathers on his shoulder. "Ouch!" he shrieked, leaping over scolding ash and deadly laser beams.

Trails of winding black soot lay in the inventions' wake as they advanced upon the young cadet. "You have ten seconds left, Private!" Skipper yelled over the chaos of exercise, dodging lasers himself with an elegant ease. The young cadet fumbled with his movements, wailing and whimpering whenever a laser would come close to or scorch his pastel flesh.

"Alright, Kowalski, that's enough. Turn it off," Skipper chuckled, time eyeing the youngster strenuously hopping about the grey sheet of concrete. He glanced over to the slender bird who, much to his disdain, appeared to be having trouble with the controls.

"Kowalski, I said that's enou-"

"-It's not turning off, Skipper."

The commander's eyes widened, jerking his head spasmodically around to face the inventor, "What?"

"The button's stuck."

"Well, get it un-stuck."

Kowalski glared briefly, then went back to his futile tinkering. Skipper frowned and awaited an immediate, pleasant result. When one did not present itself, he decided to speed things along himself.

"Let me see that-"

In one swift motion, he snatched the remote from the strategist's flippers and fiddled clumsily with the device.

"Skipper the remote is very sensitive, please don't-"

He cut himself short upon watching the commander slam his flipper on the wedged button. The fragile device, unable to withstand the force of his strike, crumbled in his flippers like pastries. Springs, screws and all rolling off his feathers like sprinkles and raisins.

"Skipper!" Kowalski shrieked, clutching his head, the scientist's thrusters now pushed into full panic-mode. Their attention immediately switched to a distressed Private and Rico, who bawled helplessly amidst the crackling light show of lasers as they floundered around in circles.

"Hold on men!" Skipper called, charging into battle to stand beside his comrades. He jumped along the front lines, and with a loud cry, brought out a powerful blow to one of the incoming pins. The unfortunate object flew back, ultimately complying with gravity and splashing into the waters below, sending violent electromagnetic radiation currents across the once placid water with a static crackle. "The water…"

Kowalski slapped his forehead discerningly in revelation, the very thought of it all made him feel like slamming himself into a brick wall.

"Quick! Throw them in the water!"

Private wasted no time in _that _task.

Hastily, he clutched an incoming bowling pin and tossed the infernal thing into the water with a screeching cry. Stray laser beams immediately shot of the water with a great splash and sizzle, just as the last one had, burning blackened tears into nearby zoo banners and bushes.

The other faulty pins were flung carelessly into the water following the first one. One by one, pair by pair, until eventually all that was left was a panting and gasping team of exhausted penguins.

"Is everyone okay?" Skipper managed to wheeze, his eyes wide and wild.

"I-I-I don't even know how that happened! The laser beams weren't even supposed to be that high voltage!"

The commander snorted in contempt at his excuse. "What? Did you forget to carry a one or something?" he snapped, gathering himself enough to scold his second in command.

"I don't think-"

"-Hey, is everybody okay!"

Skipper then ceased his petty squabbling and directed his attention towards the area of utterance. The rest of the team then all simultaneously scrambled off the slightly scorched ground of their habit, and collected themselves quickly, smoothing down their ruffled feathers and clearing their throats of whimpers as the speakers that had shouted seconds ago neared.

Marlene ran towards the awaiting commander with wide, curious eyes, the shock of the explosions caused during the exercise, having shaken her quite a fair bit. "Are you guys okay?" she inquired worriedly. She craned her neck to get a better look at the bird's injuries, and almost immediately, her face twisted into an expression of utter confusion. She inhaled sharply, "Wait… why do you guys all of a sudden smell like fried chicken?"

Skipper, in response, glowered at the female, slightly disgusted at her accusation. "Marlene!" he began, placing his flippers on his hips as he eyed the female with a look at crossed between one of pure annoyance and abhorrence. "Now just because a cheap, faulty-knockout imitation of the fourth of July makes us smell a tad off, doesn't mean you can go and compare us to lowly poultry!"

Angelique on the other hand, was far too busy with other things to listen to the leader. "What the heck happened?"

The female practically threw herself at Kowalski as she flung her flippers around the scientist and hugged him tightly, the side of her face pressed worriedly to his chest.

Kowalski returned her gesture, and shaking his head slowly, responded to her inquiry. "Nothing much," he began, glancing briefly towards his slightly charred shoulder feathers, some of the remaining combustion from the lasers glowing slightly at the ends. "Just… a teensy, little exercise… mishap, if you will..."

At these carefully thought out, albeit hesitant, words that flowed out of the egghead's beak, Angelique visibly showed her disapproval almost immediately; her brow raising slightly in irritation as a frown crossed her normally gentle features. Kowalski smiled nervously as he attempted to utter a suitable recovery, steadying himself by gently grasping Angelique's flipper in his own and covering it reassuringly with the other. "I-I-I can assure you that no casualties other than slightly charred feathers occurred in the process… heh…"

"Uh huh…" The female avian crossed her flippers over her chest, catching the hint of perspiration that trailed down the side of the scientist's forehead.

For a moment, there was an interval of silence between the two, their opposed expressions clashing against each other like two swords in the midst of a fight. Not a word was exchanged as Angelique let out a sigh, accompanied with a roll of the eyes, and followed suit by her infamous facepalm. "Now…" she held out a flipper as a signal for him to remain silent, the other moving towards the bridge of her beak and pinching it slightly, "-I'm just taking a wild guess here, but… it seems to me, you ignored my suggestion about replacing the button spring in case of a "wedgy" outcome…"

Kowalski winced, his eyes darting around uncomfortably as he watched her pick up the slightly dented remote control tossed at her feet; courtesy of Rico, who was currently in the process of forcing down a fit of laughter.

He bit back a growl, "Note to self: lecture Rico on the importance of not interfering with arguments that involve females…" he mentally recorded with the slightest of twitches in his right eye, which luckily, wasn't noticed by the female before him.

His pout was, however, interrupted at the sight of Angelique wrenching the faulty trigger out of the remote control device, and holding it out towards him with an unreadable expression, she placed it in his trembling flipper with what sounded close to the resemblance of a snarl. "Yours I presume?"

She placed her wings on her hips, eyeing the clumsy intellectual before her with the skunk eye as the lower half of her beak grinded against the top half, a disturbingly low, crunching sound resonating from the friction occurring between the upper and lower bill.

It wasn't much of a surprise that the female was so irritated with Kowalski about dismissing her advice- which happened to be 'like the billionth time' in a row, according to Marlene's random approximation anyway. The tall avian gave an empty, hollow chuckle. "Oh, typical me…" he forced out, fumbling around with the piece of wired metal in his wings. His eyes glued tightly onto its dented form with an uncomfortable twinge of inhibition as he felt the eyes of the bystanders surrounding him, gouge in the peculiar spectacle. "It seems as though I should have taken that cappuccino…" the tuxedo bird turned towards his commanding officer, a subtle but obvious pleading look contorting upon his already wrecked features.

Skipper lifted his flippers up in defense as he strained out a chuckle that sounded between a rather faint anxiousness or jeering of some kind. "Whoa, there brainiac," he began, his eyes widening to a certain extent that you could see nearly all of the white in them, "-this is your problem. It ain't mine; and frankly, I don't appreciate being dragged into these lovey-dovey squabbles of yours… you're on your own soldier."

"You got that right…" interjected Angelique, crossing her flippers across her chest once again as she fixed herself into a more comfortable pose. She turned back to the penguin standing before her that seemed to shrink almost a whole inch upon the moment she finally cast her angry gaze back on him.

"I must say Kowalski," she started sternly, the crease in her brow making no suggestion that she was going to let this problem go as fast the previous ones she and the scientist had shared. "I am seriously starting to doubt, not only you-" she paused as her face softened, "-but myself as well… How much more do both you and me have to go through in order to get this ridiculously simple sentence of data into that thick skull of yours?" she pointed towards her own head for emphasis, "But as of now… you're on your own."

Out of the whole time Kowalski had held back his words, this was the moment that he finally decided to do his part in the conversation. "What on earth are you getting on about?" he asked, his voice nearly a shriek as he threw his flippers above his head in exaggeration. "It was only a minor exercise casualty!-" Private glanced ditheringly at his still smoking tail feathers at this, "-I don't understand how this could affect you so much when it's occurred so many times!"

His words seemed to have struck a final nerve, as the female almost immediately reacted- pointing a single rigid flipper at him and continuing her part of her rant, "Exactly, Kowalski!" she retaliated, "It's happened times too many! I've warned you time and time again about these things and yet you still choose to pay no heed to my suggestions, simply because I'm a girl!"

Angelique snapped her eyes shut, feeling the warm tears rising dangerously towards the brink of her eyelids. She took in a deep breath as she lowered her wing down, and reached once again for the bridge of her beak. "Forget it," she spat venomously, feeling his eyes attempting to meet hers despite the fact they were closed. "You wouldn't understand."

She removed her flipper from her face as she felt the tears that had previously threatened to spill, cease its stinging and sink back down. "And if anything. You never understand… no matter what I feel for you…" and at that final note, she leaped out of the habitat and stormed angrily out of sight.

"Angelique! Wait!"

Kowalski was just about to run after her, but was stopped by the rest of his team, who held him firmly back, their feet planted stubbornly to the concrete beneath.

"Stand down Kowalski! Give the little lady some time to herself!" Skipper let out a stentorian grunt, shifting his weight into the tall intellectual so that he would fall back. Unfortunately the chemist proved himself quite persistent and hopped swiftly back to his feet.

"What are you doing? I need to get to her!" blared Kowalski, attempting to weave past Skipper as he did so, but was stopped as the flat head just as briskly, pushed him back down again, only with more force.

"That was an order, Kowalski! I order you to remain in position!" he shouted, "The dame just needs to let off a little steam!" Skipper narrowed his eyes at his second in command, who did just the same back towards him, with just as much power.

"Stay out of this Skipper!" yelled Kowalski defiantly, pushing past his captain. Skipper stood dumbfounded, the enraged strategist blatantly disregarding his orders and rushing after Angelique.

(BORDER)

A disgruntled growl managed to rumble out of Skipper's throat as he furiously watched his second in command run helplessly after his counterpart with disapproving eyes. "That low-down… of all things good and almighty, what is _happening _to this unit?" he threw his flippers up in frustration, his pacific blue eyes squeezed so tightly shut that Marlene swore if he forced them closed any more, his eye lids would rip apart.

"Skipper," she began, placing a paw on his shoulder for comfort, which evidently didn't work at the moment, "Please don't get all worked up over this."

Skipper remained silent for a moment, allowing Marlene's words to sink in to his brain before he could fully comprehend what she had just said. His mind was a whirlpool of confusion, every word that was thrown at him, simply amalgamating into the maelstrom of anger, frustration, and annoyance. Mainly annoyance.

"How can I _**not**_?" he managed, his words carelessly drawled since he was clamping his beak against his tongue, "They've been at their little love fest for only seven weeks, three days, twenty four minutes and five seconds-" "-Wait. You've been counting?" interrupted the chocolate brown otter, finding the commander's over reacting just a little too hard to swallow. She threw a look of incredulousness towards the hyperventilating flat head, who, nevertheless, continued to pace the man-made floe with just as much irritation as before.

"-Yes I've been counting!" Skipper snapped, "You ain't got a single clue about what I'm dealing with every single day-" the leader paused in mid rant as he pointed down towards their underground HQ, "-It's always "you don't respect me" this, "why won't you listen" that… Argh! I just can't take it anymore!"

Marlene chewed her lower lip nervously as she watched the captain voice off his aggravations to her. Her caramel eyes simply stared intently at him, wandering once and a while towards the others, who stood along the sidelines just as attentively.

Honestly, though Marlene hated to admit it, the fighting between Angelique and Kowalski _was _starting to get a little too far. Even she at times could hear their arguments all the way from her habitat; their yells of ire emanating through the fishbowl HQ entrance like a bullhorn. It was horrible, some of the things that the two said to each other… every so often, she would sometimes be unlucky enough to be suddenly dragged in to their predicaments, with mainly Angelique running to one of her best friends for comfort.

She didn't have a problem with being her shoulder to cry on… no, it wasn't that. It was the aftermath, _after _she finished bawling her eyes out.

Not only did she receive a manifold of roars from the female avian's spleen, which had time and time again proved itself an extreme danger to her eardrums, but quite a number of her personal belongings damaged in the scientist's rampage as well.

Marlene understood what her friend was going through, and how hard the first few steps of a relationship could be. With all the yelling and misunderstanding and everything dramatic about being involved with someone… that could only be summed up in a single word.

Rough.

"-I just don't know what to do anymore…"

Once the commander had finally calmed down, and he had regained his composure. Marlene finally decided to make her input…

_Thwack!_

"_Ow_!"

Skipper moaned in pain, clutching the back of his head with an angry grimace as he felt the pain prick at his nerves. "What was that for?" he asked irritably, in return gaining a roll of the eyes from the asian otter.

"First of all, I understand you're stressed, but you've got to calm down...!" she walked slowly over, and placed paw on his shoulder once again.

Bringing her face closer to his, she scrutinized his eyes closely. The mammal grunted scornfully as her vision finally fell upon the blood flecks in the sclera of his eyes.

"You've _gotta_ take a bubble bath or something once in a while… your seriously messed up." Marlene muttered grumpily, before gently shoving the avian in irritation and spinning on her heels to storm off back to her habitat.

"Y'know _bathing_ isn't the answer to everything!"

* * *

**Digital cookies for those who know where that "bubble bath" line came from! :) Oh, and by the way, for those of you who are confused why there's no romantic interactions between Marlene and Skipper, I've decided to have a little fun and changed the ending between the two in "A Teeny, Tiny Disaster" since I thought it would be more fun to develop their relationship throughout my little series. Don't worry, it will be totally worth it! Until next time... REVIEW!**


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